BRONX SUPERMARKET DISPLAYS PICTURES OF SHOPLIFTERS HARD AT WORK

This NYC ‘Wall of Shame’ puts supermarket shoplifters in crosshairs 

 

By Dean Balsamini, Matthew Sedacca and Helayne Seidman

 

New York Post 

March 25, 2023

 

Store manager Matt Jiang, 37, poses near the rogue's gallery in Chang Li Supermarket on Benedict Avenue in Parkchester. 

A Bronx supermarket is posting photos of thieving meatheads — and their stolen delicacy of choice — on a wall of shame alongside its butcher counter.

The rogue’s gallery in Chang Li Supermarket on Benedict Avenue in Parkchester includes: “The Sausage Stealer,” “Frying Pan Thief” as well as one person who was “Banned for Stealing Turkey Neck.”

“When they see their pictures, they never come back again,” said store manager Matt Jiang, 37.

“Seafood is a big thing. It’s expensive. They come and take a lot of the expensive stuff, which adds up, a couple hundred dollars,” said Jiang.

City shopkeepers know the thefts can also cost lives.

A deadly scuffle over allegedly stolen shrimp inside a Harlem fish market left a Manhattan man fatally stabbed — and his brother wounded — last month.

“We don’t want confrontation, we don’t want anyone to get hurt,” Jiang said, adding, “if they [the shoplifters] walk out the door, to the parking lot it’s too far, we don’t encourage people to run after them. When they get on the street you don’t know what’s going to happen.

 

The Bronx supermarket posts photos of thieving meatheads — and their stolen delicacy of choice — on a wall of shame alongside its butcher counter.

 

“Even if we catch the shoplifters, the cops can’t really do anything,” he said. “It takes them a long time to come to store and then even if we file report, it’s just the report, they’ll just let them go.”

However, the store’s surveillance cameras do capture the images of the thieves, making them wall-of-shame eligible.

“We write what they stole, that’s the easiest way to identify them,” Jiang said. 

Chang Li isn’t the only market trying to shame shoplifters: One Dollar Zone on Third Avenue in East Harlem and C-Town in Central Harlem have also posted snaps of the alleged thieves.

“They know they’re not wanted here,” said Jamie King, 30, an employee at One Dollar Zone, where he and co-workers put up pictures of those caught grabbing Dove soap and liquid laundry detergent. 

 “When they see their pictures, they never come back again,” said store manager Jiang.

 

“There’s very little you can do. You can’t have physical contact, not even snatching the bag that has stuff in it. You’re gonna be the one in trouble and sent to jail.”

Shoppers entering the C-Town on West 116th Street are greeted by a photo collage of accused wrongdoers, right next to shelves of curry powder, garlic salt and other herbs and seasonings. When a shoplifter is caught at the exit by security, management makes sure the perp strikes a pose before they are released empty-handed.

“They steal here every day. Mostly detergent and milk,” griped one cashier.

 

Jiang said they don’t want any confrontations in the store — which is how the wall of shame was born. 

 

“The city’s gotta do more to protect businesses, because businesses are closing down because of shoplifting — and people are gonna lose jobs,” said King.